Example embodiments of inventive concepts relate to a semiconductor device and a method for fabricating the same and, more particularly, to a three-dimensional (3D) semiconductor device including three-dimensionally arranged memory cells and a method for fabricating the same.
Semiconductor devices have been highly integrated to provide excellent performance and low fabrication costs. The integration density of semiconductor devices directly affects the costs of the semiconductor devices, thereby resulting in a demand of highly integrated semiconductor devices. The integration density of conventional two-dimensional (2D) or planar semiconductor devices may be mainly determined by an area where a unit memory cell occupies. Therefore, the integration density of the conventional 2D semiconductor devices may be greatly affected by a technique of forming fine patterns. However, since extremely high-priced apparatuses are needed to form fine patterns, the integration density of 2D semiconductor devices continues to increase but is still limited.
Three-dimensional (3D) semiconductor devices have been developed to overcome the above limitations. However, a cost per bit of 3D semiconductor devices may be expensive as compared with that of 2D semiconductor devices, and thus it may be desirable to develop a process technique capable of reducing the cost per bit.